NASA now begrudgingly confirms that the hottest year on record in the continental 48 was not 1998, as previously believed, but 1934, and that six of the 10 hottest years since 1880 antedate 1954. Data from 3,000 scientific robots in the world’s oceans show there has been slight cooling in the past five years

Yet here’s what Barack Obama says:

All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.

And Arnold Schwarzenegger:

We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late. The science is clear. The global warming debate is over.

So, which is it? If the hottest year on record was 1934 and the oceans are cooling over the past five years how is it that political leaders cling to global warming? And if I don’t believe in a climate change crisis then I am a conspiracy theorist, industry parrot, puzzle-maker, scientist for hire and I just can’t let go of my flat-earth ways.

I did OK, not flying colors. I admit I know next to nothing about the United Nations and really don’t care about it so I didn’t do well on the history exam which is UN intensive. Math wasn’t bad, but I think trigonometry is fun. Why is the anatomy of the eye on a Physics exam? All in all the exam is pretty rigorous. Could I have passed it after 10th grade? I don’t know. I learned different stuff in different sequence.

Nevertheless, the point is taken. Indian kids learn a lot of stuff to get through 10th grade. Take it yourself and see how you do.

49th Star: Alaska Statehood, New Flag Official 5th January 1959

June 30th marks the date the Senate voted to admit Alaska into statehood 50 years ago. The celebration begins tonight with activities downtown and ALASKA’S OPERATION GRATITUDE, a tribute to Alaska’s military personnel. Wynonna Judd will perform at Elmendorf Air Force Base  in a concert that will be webcast worldwide by AT&T and locally on KTUU. Following the concert will be a bonfire on the flightline to commemorate the bonfire of 50 years ago.

Alaska officially became the 49th state on January 1, 1959. What’s cool is is so many of those who were there are still around. Folks who were part of territorial government, part of the constitutional convention, who had flags with 48 stars and pinned on a 49th.

Festivities continue tomorrow. We’ll be heading to Arctic Thunder at Elmendorf tomorrow to see the Thunderbirds.

So in the interest of improving economic understanding I recommend two resources. The first is the website Energy Tomorrow. On this site the oil industry presents its case and I guarantee it will be very different from what is heard on any mainstream headline news.

Second, check out a new book by Richard McKenzie, Why Popcorn Costs so Much at the Movies. I can still hear my Economics prof saying that "prices contain lots of information." It’s true and we can learn a lot about why things cost what they do in Dr. McKenzie’s book.

Now that we are back home we’ve been tying up the loose ends of the academic year. Happily, today, John did his final assessment for K12 World History and his last lesson in GeeArt. I submitted his grades to Frontier and called it good. Whew! It’s officially summer.

Now we just need some summer weather to get in some serious tubing at the lake.

Source: Indexed

Check out the original report here.

A couple things stood out to me:

• Most importantly for us, Commissioner Thompson stated that these proposed regulations are not a response to abuses by in-district programs. There are not any reports of abuses of public funds. This is contrary to what IDEA’s administration stated to their families.
• The regs are being applied to in-district programs because they are so much like the statewide programs and it is a way to establish ‘equity’ among the programs. Although it is the main reason for the sweeping changes it is really a very superficial way of looking at the issue. Clearly, the DEED has not examined closely the in-district programs to declare them the ’same.’ As the questioning continued through the afternoon it became very clear that our hosts did not understand how some of these programs actually work and that, in practicalities, they are different.
• DEED considers a statute that refers to a statewide correspondence school as an authorization by the legislature establishing statewide correspondence schools. Clearly, statute refers to a centralized statewide school, specifically the old Alyeska Central School, not districts enrolling students outside their boundary.

So,there are no abuses to be regulated as we expected. Yet, the state will still add another level of regulation and accountability to in-district schools. A charter school with scarce funds already has five levels of accountability at the local level for spending and yet they will also add the State DEED.

Deadline for written Public Comment is May 8th.